C3P4

I sat in my command chair, savoring my sudden elevation into fleet commander. It was like being a king, flanked by two BX-Commandos are guards, and surveying my court of mannequins as OOM droids worked at their stations.

It was silent.

There were no voices. There was no need of them, except perhaps for the benefit for those who needed them.

But it was one of the few graces that came with this form now that I had a handle on what I could do. I could communicate with my soldiers with simple mental commands, ordering them to do merely by thinking it.

I called it the Network.

Every droid in the fleet was connected to me, from simple maintenance bots and B1s to Vulture Droids and the missiles they carried. Even the ships were connected to me, as they were rudimentary droids themselves; they possessed the necessary hardware to support droid brains and were intelligent to follow my orders and communicate as necessary.

And thanks to Grievous' and Ventress' connections within the very highest of the Separatist Echelons, I had managed to get my metal hands on one of the largest and most powerful warships the Confederate Navy had to offer.

The Subjugator-Class Heavy Cruiser was the great flagship of my fleet. Each and every ship's complement of fighters and battledroids were arranged to my, extensive and extremely expensive I should note, specifications.

But unlike it's first and second iterations, the Nox Aemulus bore a vague resemblance to the Devastation, the Malevolence's sister ship, but did not hold any visible superweapons of note.

Instead, it bore hundreds of batteries of turbolaser turrets and laser cannons, as well as an enlarged hangar bay.

The command tower that had been traditionally situated near the stern of the warship was now the main observation tower that held the sensor and ECM suites.

The bridge was now situated deep within the center of the immense warship, no longer visible to enemy fighters or ships to target.

I may overly waxing on this thread, but it is a fine ride.

One of the four to exist and it was one of the most powerful warships to ever be created in the Clone Wars to boot. This ship could take on an entire fleet of Venators by itself even without it's ion cannons and come out untouched.

Still, the defense fleet at Kamino was still formidable.

Confederate Intelligence, fed by the good Sith Lord Sidious without a doubt, had informed Grievous that the Republic had bolstered their forces in the sector with many light cruisers and corvettes to give them a fighting chance against the fleet's assault transports and heavier cruisers.

I personally suspected that the numbers were understated or there was something else, that intel didn't get.

But I had enough forces to swarm the Republic blockade. Dozens of Munificent Frigates and Recuscant light destroyers, freshly built from the shipyards of Pammant. A fistful of Lucrehulk-Class Battleships from some of Ventress' contacts within the nimbanese clan that owned Hoersch-Kessel Drive.

Speaking of Ventress…

'Incoming transmission over the secure channel,' said an OOM droid over the Network. 'Shall we allow it?'

'Lower communications barrier,' I said, noting with mild curiosity the change over how the Network affected my droids. B1s no longer chattered inanely, not anymore now that they had access to the combined processing power of the ship's computer banks and every other droids in the Network. They also had the tendency to refer to themselves as a collective rather than an individual.

Still, it was something to consider for later.

The droid placed it's hands on the console, 'By your command.'

The holoprojector placed in front of my command throne flickered to life, projecting a lifesized ghost of my mistress, Asajj Ventress. She did not look happy with me. And I think I know why.

"711."

I stood from my throne and knelt, "Asajj."

The dark acolyte did not react to my liberal use of her name as she often did; with mild annoyance of my perceived privilege. Hmm, that meant she was upset with me.

"I have a new order for you," she said, her voice filled with malice. "You will not die unless it is by my order. Do you understand me?"

"…I do, mistress," I replied, bowing my hooded head. "I am sorry for worrying you, mistress."

"See that you don't," Asajj murmured. Her eyes closed as she took a deep breath, "How long until your fleet arrives?"

A quick mental check told me that we would arrive in fifty minutes. "Within the hour, my lady."

"Then you must know that there have been complications," said the dathomiran. Her hologram flickered, changing into the image of several ships, easily cruiser classed. They resembled large flying wings, with half a dozen engines propelling it.

"Nabooian J-type Carrier-Destroyers. Twelve of them arrived half an hour ago. There are other starships from Naboo my assault craft's sensors cannot identify. Nevertheless, their complement of fighters will prove to be a dangerous threat that we can use to our advantage."

I got to my feet and nodded. Naboo N1 Fighters were more interceptors with a limited torpedo attack, but while they were armed with torpedoes, they were very dangerous to capital ships. Battleship killers were called.

A squadron easily had enough combined firepower to match an equivalent in two to three Republic Y-Wings; such was the concentrated power of Naboo Engineered torpedoes.

"I will take this into account, thank you mistress," I said, my head inclining.

A shadow of a smile graced Asajj's lips as she returned the nod. "I will see you on Kamino, my Toy General."

I returned to my seat and clasped my hands together. I had some more thinking to do.

"General, I would like to have a word with you," came a low gravely voice behind me.

General Grievous stomped into view, pushing aside the commando droid on my left as he peered down upon me, his eyes glinting malevolently.

"In private, if you would please," he added hastily.

But I had to deal with Grievous first. I nodded, "Of course."

As we left the bridge, I wondered what the kaleesh cyborg wanted with me.

Nothing good, probably.